The Best and Worst Times to Travel This Thanksgiving, According to Google

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and on Monday Google released its tips—based off historic data from Google Trends and Google Maps—for avoiding crowds at the airports and on the roads.

This year is expected to be one of the busiest for travel around the holiday: U.S. airlines will carry an estimated 27.3 million passengers, according to Airlines for America. And many millions more will hit the roads to get to their destinations.

When to Hit the Road

Google reports the best time to leave the house is at 6 a.m. on November 20, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Since that's not possible for many (or most), they also reported the worst time to leave: 3 p.m. on Wednesday the 23rd. So if you can't drive at the best time, at least try not to drive at the worst.

For returning, the best time, according to Google, is 6 a.m. on Friday. If that's too soon, just avoid the worst time: Saturday at 4 p.m.

What to Know About Air Travel

The five busiest airports for Thanksgiving travel were Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), and Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL).

If flying from one of these airports, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get through security lines.

Besides travel information, Google also looked at food trends for Thanksgiving, including what people are planning to cook.

The top five recipe searches in the U.S. were for turkey dressing, green been casserole, mashed potatoes, prime rib, and corn casserole.

When it came to pie, pumpkin ranked first, followed by apple, lemon meringue (Can we come to your house?), cherry, and pecan.